Monday, December 22, 2014

Its very French! The
wife will be away for the weekend so he has invited his mistress to visit. His
best friend arrives, which shouldn’t spoil the fun, except that the wife is
having it off with the best friend.

Now this setup may sound okay to a European
audience, but in America its called infidelity
and is not considered a joking matter. (As I am also a paralegal in Family Law I
can assure you its not!) Still, it’s a farce, and the actors give it their best
try. The tangled web they weave is full of good humor and quite delightful
complications, but all sadly negated by the underlying sleazy theme.

Patrick Burke is an
energetic philanderer and Julie Davis is his not-so-naïve wife. Patrick Skelton is his friend in-deed and Stephanie
Colet his bewildered mistress. Stealing the show is Jennifer Laks as a hired
cook who manages to make a proper stew, and J. Christopher Sloan is believably
Gallic as her genial husband.

Written by Marc
Camoletti (author of the acclaimed Boeing-Boeing),
adapted by Robin Hawdon and jauntily directed by Drina Durazo. The charming
country-home set is by Chris Winfield and plaudits to dialect coach Glenda
Morgan Brown. Produced by Bert Emmett and Dan Sykes for the Group Rep.

At the Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900
Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, through January 25. For tickets: (818) 763-5990
or www.thegrouprep.com. Ample street parking.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Superstar Dame Angela Lansbury triumphs in
this totally delightful revival of Noel Coward’s 1944 comedy. Set in an elegant
English country home, a novelist has arranged a séance as research for his new
book.

He didn’t reckon with eccentric medium
Madame Arcati (Lansbury) who, after cycling eight miles to the house, accidentally summons up his dead ex-wife. This
blithe spirit is not approving of his new spouse and is determined to win him
back. So Madame Arcati is called on again to exorcise this ghost, a talent she
obviously does not possess. However, she is quite willing to give it a try, and she does, with predictably disastrous results.

Lansbury is a bundle of energy,
even doing the hokey-pokey to connect with the other world, and taking the stage so
completely that the rest are in danger of becoming mere shadows.

CharlesEdwards
is a gallant hero caught between warring wives; Charlotte Parry presents a stiff-upper-lip as his beleaguered
present wife; Jemima Rooper is a kewpie-doll ghost with a sensual memory; Simon
Jones and Sandra Shipley are a neighboring couple of skeptics,
and SusanLouiseO’Connor is the daftest maid that ever served high tea.

Directedwith impeccably high style byMichaelBlakemore, the exquisite set is by Simon
Higlett, with lighting by Mark Jonathan and sound by Ben and Max Ringham. The
costumes are exquisite, with Lansbury’s colorful outfits by Martin Pakledinaz.
Delightful interlude vocals of Coward songs by Christine Ebersole.

After winning accolades in London the show is being launched atthe AhmansonTheatre for its North American Tour.
At Los Angeles Music Center, 135
North Grand Avenue, through
Jan. 18. Tickets: 213-628-2772 or www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or CTG Box
Office.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Poland, 1928. Strangers on
a train meet and chat and, even through the veneer of small talk, we soon get
the picture. The handsome young man is a successful businessman from Russia,
and Jewish. The chatty peasant girl is a Polish army nurse and blatant anti-Semite.
She boasts that she can spot a Jew from across the room, but he has slipped
under her radar. Angry, and with amused contempt, he plans to draw her to him
and after their first passionate kiss (or more) tell her he’s Jewish. Ah, the
plan is a good one under the circumstances, a well deserved reproof, until he
recognizes under her naiveté a fragile girl and falls in love with her. They
spend three days in Zacopane, a luxury resort, and the secret that divides them
becomes an ominous shadow.

Based on his own father’s youthful
true story, Henry Jaglom has created a simple yet persuasively real situation
where we are like flies on the wall observing people as if in real life. All this
is overshadowed by our modern awareness of what the blatant anti-Semitism in
Poland led to during the Nazi occupation. Here it is the elephant in the room,
and the final confrontation is a powerful statement on the tragedy guaranteed
by racism.

Tanna Frederick is superb
as Katia, blossoming from a frowsy chatterbox into a passionate vulnerable
woman; Mike Falkow matches her as Semyon, a sophisticated charmer opening into
an emotionally honest man. Also excellent are Cathy Arden as a worldy-wise actress,
Stephen Howard as a bigoted priest, Jeff Elam as a wary doctor, and Kelly
DeSarla as a fun-loving flapper.

Written by Henry Jaglom
and directed with great sensitivity by Gary Imhoff. The complicated yet exquisite sets are by Chris Stone. Produced by
Alexandra Guarnieri and presented by The Rainbow Theatre Company in association
with Edgemar Center for the Arts. At the Edgemar Theatre, 2437 Main Street,
Santa Monica. Tickets: (310) 392-7327 or www.edgemarcenter.org. Don’t miss it.Also reviewed in the January issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY.

The play covers the tumultuous
decades of protest before and during WW2, to when the color bar was lowered and
blacks were finally allowed into mainstream hotels. Compressing this dynamic
history into 3 hours, playwright Levy Lee Simon mainly focuses on the lives of
the staff, with poet Paul Laurence Dunbar as a genial ghost-host.

Julio Hanson as Dunbar

Under
producer Ben Guillory’s imaginative direction we visit with Dwain A. Perry as the
creative hotel owner, Lucius Lomax. Melvin
Ishmael Johnson is his delightfully peevish hotel manager; Petal d’Avril Walker is his patient wife; Vanja Renee is a
flirtatious waitress; Rhonda Stubbins White is a no nonsense attendant; Ashlee
Olivia is a reluctant maid, and Kyle Connor McDuffie is her loyal sweetheart.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Prolific
author Joyce Carol Oates has written this series of ten monologues by a variety
of women in a desperate search for love. Some are sketchy, others are almost mini
plays, but all are powerful statements about women’s confused relationships
with men. There is some onstage nudity but Oates is mainly concerned with
revealing emotional nakedness. Director Gloria Gifford cleverly has them all as
party attendees, in a blood-red room, where they share their stories with us.

Genevieve
Joy is the hostess writing checks to save a world she despises; Cynthia San
Luis is riveting as a teacher sexually misinterpreting the advances of a boy of
15; Sabrina Won is a total loon waiting for Armageddon; Abigail Kochunas is a receptionist
whose façade hides a hidden rage, and Davia King is a wife seeing her husband
weeping and realizing it’s over.

Pamela
Renae is moving as a happily pregnant women with a malignant talking fetus; Kelly
Musslewhite is delightful as a featherbrain married to a serial killer (see
today’s headlines); Kasia Pilewicz is trying for invisibility thru bulimia, and
Leana Chavez, Raven Bowens and Nancy Chavez are disfigured with love bites. Most
impressive is Jade Warner as a murdered stripper who walks us through her
terror and asks the question, ‘why do you hate us?’ that female victims of
violence ask everywhere.

About Me

Born in UK, started in theater as actress on Broadway then playwright/director in UK & the USA, Broadway Critic for The Hollywood Reporter in the 1980s. Artistic director at theatres in NY and Hollywood. Wrote musicals with ASCAP composer-lyricist husband, Ralph Martell, all produced in NY & California. For 10 years directed outdoor Shakespeare in Manhattan through NY Dept Cultural Affairs. Play HARRIET TUBMAN HERSELF starring Christine Dixon, now in its 9th year. Contest winner for plays in Okla, W, Virginia & Texas. Books CLASSICS 4 KIDS and SHAKESPEARE IN AN HOUR published by Shakespeare, Inc. AWARDS: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) playwriting grant; 5 grants for children's musicals and 8 NY/DCA for Shakespeare productions. Member DGA, AEA & LA Press Club. Lectures on "The Impact of Yiddish Theatre on American Theatre." Co-founder NY Women in Film & TV. Monthly theater column in NOT BORN YESTERDAY California senior paper. Email: dramatist2006@yahoo.com